So here's the situation( Note: I've searched most of honda-tech and haven't found anything matching exactly the symptoms of my car, either that or I haven't searched hard enough. )
Few days ago, noticed my car overheating. The oil was low, but I just changed the oil two weeks ago, so I added some. The overflow/coolant reservoir was full. I drove it to the grocery store yesterday, and didn't overheat. But later in the day, it started to overheat again. And I noticed a few things:

1) The overflow tank was still full.
2) The oil level was low again, and I looked under the car and saw a very small puddle of fluid, not sure from where... But touched it, it felt oily, and was blueish, like the color of my coolant.
3) I don't recall the fan turning on while driving it back home, but I had the heater on, which helped the overheating a bit, so maybe I just couldn't hear it.

I changed the radiator and thermostat in July, so I don't think that could be it. I didn't see the white smoke or smell the sweet smell. I didn't see the milky oil symptom either. I don't even think the water pump is working as it may be where the leak could be coming from, and both lead me to believe that both my head gasket and water pump need to be replaced.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

What specific location under car did you see the puddle of leaking coolant?

 

I didn't get under there and look yet, but it looks to be towards the exhaust headers, or right where the timing belt cover is.

 

That's right under the waterpump, of course. If it were mine I would just hunt-down the source of the leak & forget the head gasket for now. Or do a block test for exhaust gas in the coolant. Still, find the leak source first, I think.

 

Ah, okay. I was thinking it was both the head gasket and water pump, because this isn't the first time I've lost oil, and the leak/puddle is mostly oil and a bit of my blue coolant.

Also, for more info, the car is at 160K and to my knowledge the water pump, timing belt, and head gasket are still from the factory, I don't think the previous owner changed it...

 

If correct, this would be consistent with a water pump failure, as mentioned. Verify to be sure because replacing a water pump is a difficult job for a novice.

 

Would it be possible it's also a bad head gasket as I'm leaking oil in that general location too?

 

Assuming you read the symptoms in the exhaust and oil correctly, your own observations suggest you probably do not have a head gasket leak. But yes, it is possible. It is also possible you are leaking or burning enough oil to reduce your level kinda quickly, but I think burning or leaking oil by about a half quart on a single grocery run would definitely be noticable in your exhaust. Solve one item at a time, so others become clearer. The coolant leak in undeniable. Find its source. Look for leaking hoses, not just a leak at the water pump. Fluids can travel around the block before they drip off, seeking the lowest point. Report back what you find. We'd be curious.

 

Hey ya'll!

Okay. So I have a timeline of this just to give ya'll an idea. Cause now I'm not really sure what's going on, but I'm pretty sure it was the water pump that's going bad.



1/12: Overheating problem started. I dropped my friend off at his place, which is 20 miles from my place. I drove home with the heater on and that seemed to help. Upon getting home, I checked the coolant level, it was pretty low, so in a panic I added coolant all the way to the top. Added some oil too because that was looking extremely low, like barely anything on the dipstick. [img]blob:https://honda-tech.com/db2c8eab-842a-408a-b03a-cf9c37980113[/img] So after doing that, I just left it alone overnight.



1/13: Drove around close by my house to get a few errands done, and it didn't overheat at all. Maybe drove for a total of 5-10 miles. Then headed to my friends place, (20 miles away) about half way to his place it started overheating again. Parked at his place, noticed the coolant leaking from where I had said in my initial post, which did look like the water pump area. Didn't check the oil level before I drove to his place though. (I should have before I started running errands, smh.) Although I think it was in between the two dots... Drove it really quick to get groceries like in my initial post. The coolant reservoir tank was leaking, I think I put too much and the bubbles were causing the excess to come out a drip. Then checked again, had very small leak under where I mentioned.



1/14: Left it parked at his place, took public transportation to work.



1/15: Roommate came after we both got off work to tail me as I drove it through side streets from our friends place to our apartment. Added some more oil. Didn't add any coolant. Drove it about home with the heater on and it stayed in the middle, no overheating. Parked the car, and did somewhat of a test. Turned off the heater, and turned on the A/C instead to see if it would overheat. It didn't, and the radiator fan was working. The coolant level was maybe half an inch over the max line. There was still coolant leaking, however, in that same area I had mentioned before.



1/16: Did the combustion leak test, and the fluid stayed blue, didn't turn yellow, so I'm glad it doesn't look like my head gasket is busted.

1/17 & 1/18: Waited for parts to arrive… I ordered these from Amazon:



1/19: Began the work to get to the water pump!
Followed EricTheCarGuy’s Tutorial on YouTube on how to change it. Had to stop at putting the lower timing belt cover on cause it was getting too dark... So far so good, though!



1/20: Put everything back together, filled the oil up and said might as well change the filter as well. Then I added coolant in the radiator and kept the front end of the car jacked up. Turn the engine over and then I get something new… a squeaking/chirping sound! And I have a high suspicion that it is probably the A/C Pulley… haven’t got a chance to check, but I will this weekend…looks like it’s the bus to work for me this coming week, haha.

 

Chirping is possibly just a loose drive belt.

 

Loose drive belt? Like the Power Steering, Air Conditioning, or Alternator belts, right? Weird, how tight do I need to make them? And honestly, I'm not sure if it's either chirping or squealing, now that I think about it...

Also, I forgot to mention, upon removing the pulley for the A/C while getting to the water pump, (not the actual A/C pulley, the one you can tension), it was pretty bad and rusted, I couldn't even rotate it nicely, I think this might be the culprit, because as I tired spinning it, there is a lot of metal rubbing on metal kind of sound on the bearing, so i just opened it up and adding more bearing grease, I thought that might've worked, but now I'm not so sure.
And upon adjusting the tension on the A/C belt, that chirp/squeal sound did not go away. I think I may have even cracked my A/C belt because it was too tight...

So, I guess what I would need help and input on is:

How tight should the belts be, and how can I check?
To diagnose the sound, is it okay to run the engine without the belts one by one to see which belt is the culprit?
And if it actually is the A/C, should I just go ahead and replace both the A/C belt and pulley?

Thanks for all your help and input, muellersfan and California98Civ!!

 

For belts I like to make them tight enough that they could twist only 90 degrees, like Looking at the side profile it can only twist to see the top or bottom, not a full 180.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by twist...?

 

With the belt installed, pinch the top and bottom of it with your fingers, then you should be able to twist the belt with your fingers, if you can twist in such a way that the top is now the bottom, it’s to loose.

 

Oh, okay. I see. That's to check to see if it's tight enough. So if I can twist it so it's 90 degrees, that's what I should be aiming for in terms of how tight it is? If I could maybe twist it like 45 degrees, do you think that would be acceptable?

 

Yea that sounds good

 

Cool. I'll give that a try, thank you! That answered one of my issues, lol.

As for checking which belt is exactly making noise, I can take off each of the belts one at a time to check right, except the alternator?

 

You can start the engine with all the external belts off including the alternator. This should be the first test to make sure the noise is something related to a belt. Spin the parts by hand if any make noise they will be a lot louder at speed. The A/C idler bearing is a standard generic #6203 that you can buy for less than $10. Once a bearing gets noisy more grease is a very temporary fix at best.

 

Awesome, thank you! Also, I was wondering about the attached photo, while looking for parts and I thought about when I was taking everything apart to get to the water pump, I noticed I don’t have number 22 or 23. I only have 19, 15, and 14. Will that affect the belt or anything in anyway?

 

Those are the covers for the bearing, with the bearing exposed it can become contaminated quicker than normal.

 

Aww man. So I need to get those parts as well, right?

 

So, update.

I install the new assembly, (included parts 23 and 22), and everything worked out - no more sound from the A/C belt, or the other two belts. However, now there is a flapping sound coming from underneath the timing belt cover.

My first thought is that I didn't tension the timing belt cover correctly. Any thoughts?

 

Sorry to revive an old thread. Wanted to give an update in case this happens to anyone else after changing the timing belt. But the flapping sound under the cover was the belt slapping the cover and the tension was not set correctly, if anyone ever gets this issue. Sorry again!

 

Thank you for sharing your findings, cause, and the solution. So many times threads are left "hanging" and you DID the right thing.